CHISWICK

Chiswick (fn. 1) parish lies in a large loop of the
Thames 10 km. west of Hyde Park Corner. It is
known chiefly for Chiswick House, near its
centre, and for 18th- and 19th-century buildings
at Chiswick village, hereafter referred to as Old
Chiswick, and Strand-on-the-Green, respectively at the eastern and western ends of the loop.
The greater part of the boundary follows the
Thames. The eastern boundary with Hammersmith ran from the eastern end of Chiswick Eyot
northward along the line of the present British
Grove and part of Goldhawk Road to Stamford
Brook Road. Thence the northern boundary,
mainly with Acton, ran west-south-west across
Stamford Brook common, to follow the course of
a Roman road between Acton Green common
and the Back (later Chiswick) common. West of
Turnham Green the line of the Roman road and
the former boundary are followed by Chiswick
High Road through Gunnersbury, a district
mainly in Ealing but later with its railway station
and other public buildings in Chiswick. (fn. 2) Farther
west, at Old Brentford in Ealing parish, the
boundary turned south-west, away from the
road, to meet the river at Kew bridge.

The parish contained 1,216 a. in 1871 (fn. 3) and
1,245 a. in 1881, after the addition in 1878 of a
detached part of Ealing, both figures apparently
excluding the tidal foreshore. (fn. 4) The detached part
of Ealing formed a triangle of 29 a. called
Stamford Brook grounds projecting from
Chiswick's northern boundary near the east end;
built over as part of Bedford Park, it is included
in the present account along with that suburb's
parts in Acton. The Chiswick U.D.C. Act, 1911, (fn. 5)
transferred to Chiswick a small but populous area
around the Star and Garter at Old Brentford,
making Chiswick High Road the boundary as far
as the approach to Kew bridge. In 1932 the
northern boundary with Acton was adjusted to
coincide with the Metropolitan District railway
line, which runs more nearly east and west than
the former boundary. (fn. 6) Chiswick, which had a
local board of health from 1883 and became a
U.D. in 1894, formed part of Brentford and
Chiswick U.D. (later M.B.) from 1927 and
contained 1,276 a. of the borough's 2,332 a. in
1951. From 1965, when Brentford and Chiswick
joined Heston and Isleworth M.B. and Feltham
U.D., Chiswick has formed the eastern extremity
of Hounslow L.B.

Flood plain gravel covers nearly all the peninsular part of the parish, bordering the river at Old
Chiswick along Chiswick Mall and at Strandon-the-Green. A belt of alluvium, nowhere more
than 200 m. wide, curves around the southern
and south-eastern part of the loop. Brickearth
covers the northern half of the parish, except
where a tongue of gravel stretches north to
Gunnersbury. From the Hammersmith end of
Chiswick High Road, the edge of the brickearth
extends south-westward to the bottom of
Chiswick Lane and thence westward to the
approach to Kew bridge. (fn. 7)

The land is generally flat, lying c. 6 m. above
sea level but rising slightly higher in the northwest corner, along parts of Chiswick High Road,
and north and west of the parish church. (fn. 8) High
tide levels threatened most of the parish by 1972,
when the Thames Barrier and Flood Prevention
Act was passed, (fn. 9) and in 1976 ordinary tides had a
high water mark of 13-14 ft., a level represented
by the lowest stretches of Chiswick Mall and
of the riverside path at Strand-on-the-Green. (fn. 10)
Chiswick Eyot, opposite Chiswick Mall, is the
most easterly of the islands in the Thames, (fn. 11) the
nearest ones being Oliver's Island, facing
Strand-on-the-Green, and Brentford Ait. (fn. 12) Containing 3¼ a. c. 1900, Chiswick Eyot later suffered
such erosion that by 1948 its eastern tip had
disappeared. Silting up of the backwater allowed
it to be reached on foot at low tide (fn. 13) and in 1949
the island could be covered by a high tide. In
1978 it was to be preserved by Hounslow L.B. (fn. 14)

Bollo or Bollar brook enters the parish from
Acton, west of Turnham Green, passing under
the high road and, by a course no longer visible,
into the grounds of Chiswick House. (fn. 15) Thither a
stream also flows from a former lake near Sydney
House, at the western end of the parish, through
another lake at Little Sutton. From the 18th
century the streams have fed a long ornamental
water, created for Chiswick House and drained
south-eastward by a conduit to the Thames along
the present line of Promenade Approach Road. A
stream ran eastward from Acton Green along the
Chiswick side of the boundary towards the
western branch of Stamford brook, which for a
short distance formed the boundary with
Hammersmith. (fn. 16)

Footnotes

1. The article was written in 1979. Any references to later
events are dated. The help of Mrs. K. Judges, Mr. T. A.
Greeves, and Mr. J. Wisdom in commenting on parts of the
article is gratefully acknowledged.